The goal of this 6th grade level lesson plan is to access the question, How do humans contribute to rising global temperatures and how does this affect life on earth? The teacher pre-burns tea-light candles so that there is about 1 hour left of burning and begins class by lighting all the candles to demonstrate that as long as the candle is lit, there will energy in the room to power all phones, computers, etc. The students are asked to consider the questions "Where does most of the energy on Earth come from?" and "How do humans contribute to rising global temperatures?" The students watch a video on an oil refinery explosion and complete a webquest to answer these questions. A simulation on monarch butterfly migration in response to temperature is done using two household fans, two groups of 5 students (with blindfolds) that will migrate to the other side of the room once the fan turns on. The first group will feel the cold air as their cue to migrate and pollinate and will end a piece of chocolate after the migration. The second group will not feel any air from the fan (due to rising global temperatures), thus do not get the cue to migrate, and there is no chocolate. The students are posed with the question Why is this such a problem now? and presented a video comparing ancient human life vs. modern human life and explaining population growth. To demonstrate energy scarcity, the students will observe the burnt out candles and when the students go to use the computers the computers will all be dead and there will only be one charger and one outlet available. Another simulation takes place in which the students play environmental musical chairs with a surface being covered each turn, not able to use it again; this demonstrates energy consumption to the students. The students analyze and graph data showing the rising global temperatures affect on climate change. Last, the students are asked to propose ideas of how the negative effects of global warming can be mitigated or reversed. 

I think the burning candle is a clever way to represent the dwindling sources of energy that the earth has left over time due to human consumption. I would incorporate the candle simulation, the environmental chair simulation, and the oil refinery video into the same lesson plan. The musical chairs directly shows how once a natural resource of the earth is used up it is gone. Physically witnessing the number of available places to sit (sources of energy) decrease as the candle burns out goes well together. When there are no spaces left for musical chairs, the candle will be completely burned out. Then watching the video on oil refineries affect on global temperatures and use of nonrenewable energy will tie together have humans directly interact with increasing temperatures and decreasing resources. The oil refineries also demonstrate to students how human activity can impact the living conditions of surrounding communities. In my opinion, anything that gets students out of their seats to learn a concept is a great way to get students engaged in the lesson. I would add the butterfly migration simulation into a separate after completing the last ones as it provides an example of how other communities outside of humans can be affected by global warming, a profoundly human induced problem. By giving some students candy and others none, the students will feel disappointed and will understand how animals may face changes in food availability when changing migration patterns. I believe this would be a good simulation for one day of class when discussing climate change, migration patterns, or resource availability. 

This lesson explores pollution and the reasons it affects certain groups of people more than others. First the students are posed the questions : What is pollution? What are some of its causes? What are some effects of pollution? The students are given a worksheet to fill out with two columns labeled, People Affected by Pollution and Why they are affected by Pollution. After the students have filled in their first thoughts they are asked if their list includes any groups of people who are affected by pollution for reasons besides their physical health. If not already included in their charts, the students are told to add low-income individuals and members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Then, they will explain in the right hand column why these people may be more affected by pollution. Next the students are shown the map of Air Pollution in Minority Areas in Connecticut. The next step of the lesson has two options. The students can examine 4 graphs (Exposure to Chemical Releases According to Income, Exposure to Hazardous Waste Sites According to Income, Exposure to Hazardous Waste Sites According to Race, and Exposure to Chemical Releases According to Race), learn the term environmental bias, and question if it is an institutionalized system that unfairly deprives people of the right not to be exposed to toxins. Or the students can be asked to consider what sources of pollution exist in their own communities and what individuals live in more pollution concentrated areas.

The use of maps and graphs is a great way to visualize the environmental injustice faced by specific groups (low-income and ethnic minorities). As a teacher I would want to create a lesson completely on pollution itself and incorporating this social justice aspect would be a great learning opportunity for students. They need to learn about the detrimental affects of pollution on the earth as well as people themselves. Being aware that certain groups are purposely exposed more to pollution may encourage students to take initiative. I would like to incorporate the chart that the lesson included since it allows students to put their initial assumptions first and possibly be introduced to new ideas. The graphs and map utilized are also very helpful to demonstrate exactly which communities are being most effected by air pollution. Learning this information will lead students to question how this discrimination arose and how they can help create a more environmentally just world. I most definitely would ask the students about areas of concentrated pollution in their own communities to create a more personal interest in the lesson. I would pull up a map of the town in which my students live on the board and place post-it notes in areas that the students identify as major sources of pollution such as a highway, landfill, hazardous waste disposal, power plant, or factory. Then, we could determine if there is a correlation between proximity to sources of pollution and specific groups of people. 

This lesson focuses on describing the distribution of Earth's water among the major water sources, outlining components of the water cycle, and predicting ways in which human activities are most likely to affect water availability and quality as it passes through the water cycle. A Water Footprint worksheet is completed by the students before class in which they predict which human activities use the most water. In discussing this worksheet, the students will be able to quantify ways in which human beings utilize water resources, will compare personal, national, and world use statistics to predict the effects of such utilization across the globe. The students are asked to ponder ways that they could optimize the use of water resources to facilitate environmental justice. A simple diagram of the water cycle is created by asking students where water is found and how it moves from different reservoirs. The students are asked to predict whether the atmosphere or land contains more water, to rank the components of land in order of which stores the most freshwater (the teacher notes that there is much more water in groundwater than in surface water), and to explain why there is more evaporation from the oceans than precipitation over the oceans. Last, the students will perform a sustainability role-play with the teacher. The students are placed into groups representing mechanisms of transport (clouds, rain, rivers, groundwater, plants) and the teacher is the consumer of water (farmer, industrial site manager, park ranger, town citizen, etc.). The class will discuss possible scenarios creating change in the water cycle. Example scenarios are "What would happen to people living downstream if someone diverts or dams the river in your semi-arid region? If global warming increases evaporation, what are the consequences? If a company dumps toxic waste on the ground in an urban area, what are the potential consequences? If your town relies on a well for water supply and it dries out, what are your options? What would happen if any of the variables (input/output/transport) are changed?"

Including sustainability, pollution, and global into discussions about the water cycle are great ecojustice education practices. I would not make the pre-class worksheet due before class, but would rather have them brainstorm quickly at the start of class for about 5-10 minutes and then we would hop into the discussion of the answers. I would be interested in hearing students ideas on how to conserve use. I would also like to incorporate a video into this lesson that discussing the availability of freshwater more in depth and demonstrates how it is a privilege even though it is a necessity. I believe adding a video on the Flint Michigan water crisis would be relevant as it took place recently in this country and it exposes another example of environmental racism. The role play provides room to bring up a lot of different issues that can relate to water availability including contamination, drought, habitat reconstruction, and more. 

This mapping exercise is targeted towards students living in a known toxic area so that a lesson can be related back to their lives. A map of the area in which the students live that includes major streets/freeways and post-it notes are used for this exercise. The students will each write their name on a post-it note and place their sticky note on the general area of their residence. After the students have located their locations on the map, pull up a map showing the toxic sites within their neighborhood. This can be done by projecting the toxic sites onto the map with their sticky notes if the map is placed onto a smartboard or just placing the second map next to it for comparison. Another exercise provided by this source is the step up exercise in which students step forward or stand up when hearing a statement that relates to them. The prompts provided by the source are "1. Step up if you or someone in your family has asthma 2. Step up if you or someone in your family is a cancer survivor or has died from cancer 3. Step up if you live within a mile of a Freeway 4. Step up if you often have to close your windows because there are foul smells in your neighborhood. (Note: If not many people raise their hand or step up, point out that they might have gotten used to the smell after living there for so long or for their whole life) 5. Step up if you live within a mile of a Gas Station 6. Step up if your family would move to a different neighborhood if they had the money."

Using these specific exercises in the future would greatly depend on the location and demographic of the school district I teach at. Also, the age of the students may depend how this lesson can be played out. The article posed this as an eighth grade lesson plan so I would agree that the topic is appropriate for late middle school and high school age students. It takes maturity to deal with talking about the issues seen within your own community. One thing I would do differently from the lesson plan described would be not having the students write their names on the post-it notes. In talking about living in proximity to toxic sites, the students may feel embarrassed or ashamed of living in these areas and I would not want to target any students. I would add some statistics into the lesson to explain why these toxic sites are placed closer to certain neighborhoods over others so that students can understand the systems that create unjust environmental conditions. As a biology teacher I might fit this into a lesson on pollution or diseases. This could be incorporated into a lesson discussing inherited diseases that are also heavily influenced by environmental factors such as cancer or asthma that are seen in greater numbers in minority groups and lower-income communities.